The Lighthouse

I really enjoy PD James and this book was no exception. With Combe Island as a setting, she was able to create a classical whodunnit with a modern twist, prescient of the pandemic. Ultimately I wasn't even too invested in the investigation itself because I was more interested in the characters themselves, especially the burgeoning dynamic between Kate and Benton (on whom I now have a crush). The Dalgliesh-Lavenham relationship I thought was less interesting, but I loved the atmosphere on Combe and some of its characters like Halcombe, Jago and Boyde.
It was a long read but I was engaged throughout.

I keep picking up PD James, thinking that the books can't be as unsatisfying as I remember. PD James is lauded for her intricate plotting and her impressive ability to channel her personal experiences in the Home Office to create a realistic portrait of a police investigation. But, as always, I simply rediscover that I underestimated just how much I dislike these books.

At the end of a PDJ novel, including this one, I find that I hate all the characters. Each character dying off is almost a relief. I am left with the feeling, as Agatha Christie would put it, that they are all "nasty people". I always feel soiled after reading a PDJ novel. The people involved are so awful, so corrupt, so cold, so conscienceless, including PDJ's darling show more detective, Adam Dalgliesh. Dalgliesh is slightly reminiscent of Javert from Les Mis, but without Javert's redeeming qualities; he is truly an awful human being, so much so that she sticks on the artificial appellation of poet to his character, like one of those facades added to add architecture to those boxlike government buildings. Dalgliesh is conscienceless, he is cruel to the victims to get information, and he is unfeeling to his detectives, playing them off against each other to further his cause. It is fine for a character to be flawed, but clearly, PDJ takes no issue with this; she applauds him. I hate the fact that he is involved with a woman who has no connection with his life and is upper-class. PDJ has her paper-cut-out racial/class-issue characters, but they don't feel like real people to me--just talking stereotypes.

I guess, honestly, what irks me most about PDJ isn't her books; it's her comments about other members of her genre. Like Raymond Chandler before her, PDJ takes pot shots at Agatha Christie, calling her simplistic and fantastic. Yet, in every novel I have EVER read by PD James, (and I've made it through at least 10) she always resorts to a MURDERER's CONFESSION. In at least 3 cases that I recall off-hand, for some unknown reason, the murderer literally taped a confession on audiocassettes and sent it to Dalgiesh posthumously. Seriously???!!! That in itself is unforgivable; yet even worse is the fact that PDJ criticizes Christie as simplistic and contrived. AC's crimes at least can be solved without forcing a murderer's posthumous confession. Whereas in an AC, I find I really like all of the characters; caricatures though they may be, they are human enough to breathe and live and be uncertain in nature. The suspense in Agatha Christie's books comes from us not wanting to sacrifice the characters we have grown to love, while still unwillingly seeing that they are capable of murder. AC may be xenophobic and racist and classist and sexist, but her characters still breathe.

The Lighthouse continues in the same vein as the previous stories. Dalgliesh and his lady love are cold and uninvolved. Kate, the lower-class cutout, is still sympathetic and pining for her boss. The mystery itself is interesting, but the conclusion felt forced and utilizes (wait for it) a murderer's confession. Not my type of story, but I concede that if I were not so heavily biased about the Agatha Christie issue and did not find the characters so unsympathetic, I could appreciate the lyrical language and intellectual mystery. show less

Murder on the Island
A review of the Seal Books paperback (December 2006) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (2005).

The edge of the cliff was less than five feet away, bounded by a waist-high stone wall. The roar of the ocean pounded in their ears. Instinctively Kate recoiled a step before moving to gaze over the wall. Far below them, the spray rose in a white mist as the waves broke in thunderous explosions against the cliff face.

The Lighthouse brings Dalgleish and his elite investigation squad to an isolated island retreat where a famous novelist has been murdered, although suicide was also suspected at first. The insular community has a variety of suspects as the writer was not well liked. Due to a clause in the island's Trust show more agreement he had a birthright which allowed him to visit on a regular basis in order to complete books with the aid of his assistant daughter and hired secretary. The latter two become romantically involved, to the fury of the author, so even the incomers become suspects.

Unlike most of the Dalgliesh novels which centre on specific buildings or businesses such as clinics, museums or law firms, The Lighthouse takes place in a wider world of buildings and cottages spread out in its community. The team has to arrive by helicopter and outside communication becomes even further limited when one of the other incomers is diagnosed with SARS (a 2002-04 pandemic that occurred before COVID). Then Dalgliesh himself becomes infected, requiring Detective Inspector Kate Miskin and Detective Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith to complete the investigation.

There is perhaps a slight unsatisfactory element in having Dalgliesh sicken at the 11th hour of the case, but it does allow Miskin and Benton-Smith to move to the forefront. The final scenes did also require some elements of action heroism, which was more natural to be performed by the younger members of the team. So I can rationalize it as the author's decision to incorporate the pandemic of the time, along with forcing her other characters to step up. For me it was as satisfactory a read as any of the Dalgliesh books.


The front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover (2005). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

The Lighthouse continues my current Long Books Challenge with several GR friends which also allows me to complete my P.D. James / Adam Dalgliesh binge which went into hiatus at the end of 2023. I have moved on immediately to the final book in the series, The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh #14 -2008).

P.S. Mild I was actually able to deduce the culprit and the motive fairly early in this book when I asked myself what was the reason for the disappearance of the blood sample? i.e. what would someone do with a blood sample?

Trivia and Links
The Lighthouse has not yet been adapted for TV. The earlier ITV and BBC series had wrapped up before it was published. The current reboot series Dalgleish (2021 - ?) has only adapted 9 of the earlier books to date (November 2025) over 3 seasons. A season 4 has not yet been confirmed, but neither has there been a cancellation announcement. The most recent article which speculates about a season 4 was at Radio Times from December 2024. show less

Commander Adam Dagliesh is given a sensitive case that has occurred on Combe Island, a private island off the coast of Cornwall. It is an elite getaway for distinguished people of the higher echelon. The island has high security and limited access by either helicopter or the island’s boat, which prevents casual visitors’ access.

There are few who live on the island: Rupert Maycroft – secretary/manager, Dr. Guy Staveley – resident physician and wife, Tamlyn – boatman, Emily Holcombe –last surviving Holcombe, and the usual support staff of housekeeper, cook and such.

A current visitor has been found hanging from the tower of the island’s famous lighthouse. Nathan Oliver is a well-known and popular author. A mean, opinionated, show more selfish, demanding man; he is accompanied by his 32 year old daughter, Miranda, who has devoted her life to serving him, and his assistant/copy-editor, Dennis, who seems to worship the man.

Other visitors to the island are a retired German diplomat and the director of a controversial research lab.

Complications arise when the diplomat contracts SAR and is air-lifted off the island to a hospital. Dagliesh also comes down with it and is quarantined to a private room. This leaves Miskin and Benton-Smith, two of Dagliesh’s team, to work their way through secrets past and present, connections, relationships, twists and turns in the moody atmosphere of the island. A second murder doesn’t make it any easier.

A tight plot, it isn’t easy to figure the connections between the characters, but you know there are some. The atmosphere of the island and the secrecy of the characters make for a solid read. show less

A sensitive case for Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his two-person team, DI Kate Miskin and Sergeant Francis Benton; they are called to a remote Cornish island used as a secure and private retreat for notable and hounded people in the public eye, when a famous novelist is found hanged from the lighthouse.

P. D. James is a gifted crime writer, who handles the pacing of a mystery well, and doesn’t let character fall down while building her narrative; in fact, she pays more attention to her characters, peripheral as well as recurring or leading, than most crime writers I’ve read. A great example is the victim, whose detestable personality is layered with a convincingly-established sympathy for the writing to which he was absolutely show more dedicated. The Lighthouse, the thirteenth book featuring Adam Dalgliesh, left me in no doubt as to the Commander’s personality, or that of his two colleagues, nor were any of the suspects anything but properly fleshed-out individuals. I love picking up a novel where the mystery is the point, and finding that the attention to detail is as sound in every other aspect. James also creates fabulous atmosphere.

This isn’t the most gripping crime fiction novel I’ve ever read, but this author always delivers something above the norm. For me it’s the standard of writing that keeps me coming back; what she contributes to the genre is crime literature, rather than crime fiction. show less

Over the years, the character of Commander Adam Dalgliesh has become a real person. Helped by the TV series of PD James detective novels, whenever I read a Dalgliesh book I see the face of actor Roy Marsden. ‘The Lighthouse’, the 13th in the series of 14, is perhaps her best. There is no doubt that as the series progressed, the writing acquired depths earning it the label ‘literary fiction’. A lot of the action is in the mind, intellectual detection. The Lighthouse is a long way from ‘Cover Her Face’.
This is another closed room mystery. The room is an island off the North Cornish coast, a secure, secluded get-away-from-it-all holiday destination for politicians, celebrities and entrepreneurs. Dalgliesh, with his team Kate show more Miskin and Francis Benton-Smith, become residents on the island with its small number of suspects. Dead, is a famous writer, Nathan Oliver, found hanging by a rope from the railings of the lighthouse. Nothing, from this point, is as it seems. All the island’s guests, residents and staff could have a motive. Oliver was not generally liked. But you can rely on James to unwind a story which brings unexpected depths, difficulties and an unpredictable motive for murder. Many of the suspects are unlikeable, but unpleasant people are not necessarily capable of killing someone. Set against the island location, its isolation, mists, tides and birds, are the peculiarities of the residents and their reason for being on the island. Is that where the answer lies?
Quarantined on the island because of infectious illness, a second murder ups the stakes. Tangled throughout the detection are the relationships between Kate and Benton, Dalgliesh and girlfriend Emma, and the detail and politics of policing.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

Another fabulous Dalgliesh mystery. A very traditional whodunnit. The murder victim is a nasty piece of work. Multiple suspects, multiple motives, closed environment. I really enjoy the build-up and the solving of the puzzle. James is in complete control here and, also, having a bit of fun. The nasty piece of work is a successful author!